Watership Down: Woundwart Lives on
by Goldmoonrider
Summary: Mist, daughter of Hazel and Clover, is taken from Watership Down, where she was born, and taken to live with the evil rabbits of Elfreya. Not only that, but she had to watch her sister, Holly, die in the middle of it, killed by an Elfreya patrol, and she meets Woundwart, who had sent the dog running for it's life. Find out what happens to Mist in Woundwart Lives on. Please Review!
1. Rabbits in the Warrens

Watership Down Rabbits

Warren Leader

Bigwig

Second in Comand

Silver

Owsla Rabbits

Mint

Pipkin

Blackberry

Dandilion

Kanask

Lily

Cournam

Other Rabbits in the Warren

Clover - mother of Hazel's kits

Mist

Holly

Cornian

Peach

Corn

Nick

Fiver

Elfrefa Rabbits

Leader

Woundwart

Second in Comand

Campion

Mark Leaders

Lilly

Damon

Barshina

Conac

Ivy

Doe Rabbits in Mark One

Nenack

Korsho

Mino

Doe Rabbits in Mark Two

Misha

Orea

Mole

Ninea

Older Rabbits in The Final Mark

Hinmark


	2. Chapter 1

Mist looked around the tunnel that she was in. She had all the food she could posibly want here, but there was something missing. Something like friends. Now that Hazel was gone, she had no one else to hop around the Watership Down tree with. All she had ever loved was now gone. But at least Fiver was still around to mess with.

The young gray rabbit hopped out of the tunnel and stood on her hind legs. As she started to clean herself by licking her paws and rubbing them over her nose (the usual rutine) she heard the soft playful squeals of her brothers and sisters, Holly, Buck, Mil, and Cornain. She and her brothers and sisters were the daughters and sons of Clover and Hazel, which her father had joined Frith about two months ago. Actually, the whole warren had come out to pay their respects for the kind leader of Watership Down, for he was known, by all the rabbits in the warren that she had been born in herself, by the name Hazel-rah, or meaning Hazel leader. The second cheif rabbit of the warren was Bigwig, who was now the leader of the warren, Bigwig-rah.

"Come over and play with us, Mist!" Mist was cut out of her thoughts by her sister, Holly, as she came over and prodded the gray doe to come and play.

Mist couldn't resist, so she chased her sister around the tree that had the warren tunnels below it. They went around it three times, then ran through the meadow that lay on the toe of the hill which the warren was dug in. The two sisters slowed down and stopped to chew on some clover leaves. Just as Holly was about to eat a two leaf clover, she twitched her ears and sat up.

"The Owsla is out," the young black doe said slowly, then smelled the air with a twitching nose and wandering whiskers. "They, they are coming. They are coming this way, and their saying something. Wait, I think I can understand what they are saying. 'The two young rabbits went this way. Lets see if we can track them and bring them back to the burrow.'" Then Holly stopped and looked over at her sister slowly, her eyes wide with shock and horror.

"What is it Holly?" Mist asked her sister.

Holly blinked. "I, I think it's the other warren rabbits. The ones from Efrafa. They said they would take us back to their burrow and make us their's!"

Mist thumped her foot. "We wont let them!"

"But we don't know how to fight! We aren't in the Owsla!" Holly said in a fearful voice. "We have no choice but to let them take us back!"

Just before Mist could replie, she heard a twitch in the grass behind her. "Shh." she said softly, only loud enough for her sister to hear. The young doe turned around and got into springing position. Then, she struck out her hind legs, leaping into the air and onto something soft. She felt claws dig down her back and stick into the skin. The soft thing, which she knew had to be another rabbit, got out from under her.

"Don't move, or we'll hurt you worse!" a sharp voice came from on top of her. She heard the sharp squeal of Holly just ahead of her, then the stop of breathing. _She's dead! My own sister, dead! _Mist thought with a pang of sadness and hatred coming from her heart. How could these rabbits do such terrible things to her sister! They had no right to, none at all!

"This ones gone. We only need one. Bury the other one with dust, then take this one back to the burrows to see Woundwart so she can earn a right in a mark. Move!" the name Woundwart terrified Mist. She had heard many stories of the terrible rabbit, and some said he had been killed by a dog. But now that this rabbit was saying that she was to see him, she wanted to die like her sister had, just not as bad.

Before she could move away as the rabbit on top of her moved off, something grabbed onto her scruff and she was dragged about ten miles down the hill and pulled underneath a tree branch, or was it a sticking up root? She didn't know, but she did want to know where she was and who was dragging her by her scruff, which hurt terribly from the teeth. She was pulled under a thorn arch and set down, only to find herself in front of a gross, ugly, unbearable rabbit. His left eye (in his view) was white with blindness. The other one was red and had a claw mark across the eye lid.

"What is your name, Watership Down doe." his voice was an eerie screech almost, and it was most wretched.

Mist pulled herself up to speak. "M-my, my name is,ugh-"

"Speak up!" he snarled at her, and she forced herself not to squeal like a terrified kit.

"My name is Mist, sir, and my father is Hazel and my mother is-"

At the mention of her fathers name, Woundwart cut her off. "Hazel, you say?"

"Y-yes, sir." Mist forced herself to speak.

Woundwart paused, thinking about something. If only she knew what it was. If only. After quite a while of scilence, the terrible rabbit spoke up. "I knew him once when he came here. He asked me if we could share land with each other, and I thought that was an ubserd question. I also thought he was just a normal rabbit of your old warren, and I thought that Bigwig was your leader. I guess he wasn't."

Mist wanted to tell the old 'thing' that Bigwig was now the new leader of Watership down, but she knew that it would only lead Woundwart to killing all the rabbits in the warren.

"Well, Mist. You will be in Ivy's mark with five other does. Also, you will have a marking to show your patrol," just as he said that, two long claws scored down Mist's hind end and she looked over to see two claw marks in her fur. She would now be a Elfrafa rabbit.


	3. Chapter 2

Mist bit down into salty grass that was given to the mark she was in. Things at Efrafa weren't so bad now, even though she had to report to Woundwort twice a day because of where she came from. At Efrafa, she couldn't see Watership Down, since it was blocked by the iron road, as the Efrafa rabbits called it. The Efrafa burrows overlooked a wide range of human fields that had crops of corn and wheat in them. The flowers down in the fields were beautiful; her mark was taken down there once a day to eat the flowers that grew at the fence of the fields. At Woundwort's burrow though, no one could see the fields. There was a bramble vine arch that shielded Woundwort from rain, snow, and bright blinding sunshine, which she thought was strange because Woundwort was already blind in one eye.

Mist looked over from where her mark was, which was next to the tree root that made an arch above the path to Woundwort's burrow, and saw Campion guarding it with a rabbit she didn't know; a brown buck with black ears and white spots. She looked closely at Campion's eyes and for a second his and her eyes caught each other. The gray doe looked away and sat up on her hind legs to sniff the air. She could smell the fresh spring air that she had always smelled at Watership Down with her sisters, Holly and Dandelion.

When she thought about Holly, she got back onto all her paws and lowered her head, remembering how her sister had died painfully when the Efrafa rabbits had come to get them. She remembered the squeal of the black doe as they were about to leave the clearing. But Mist pushed that thought away and hopped over to where Champion was.

"Greetings, sir." she said politely.

Campion nodded and sniffed her shoulder, which had a scar on it from when the rabbit that had held her down had pushed his claws in. "I see your still hurt. Let me clean it for you," he said in an effectionet way before licking her wound for a few minutes. It felt as if there was a bond growing between the two rabbits, a friendship.

Once he was finished, he sat up and gazed into Mist's eyes. "There, good as new. If it starts to hurt or feels sore, just tell me. I might get some time off guard so we can check on them together." then he changed the subject, thumping his foot for Mist to hop with him along with path that led down into the fields and into the territory of Elfrafa. "So, I never learned how old you were. Do mind if I sneek into asking how old you really are?"

Mist twitched her long whiskers in amusment. "No, not of course. Lets see, I think I might be about a year now. Yeah, thats what mother-" then she stopped as she relized she hadn't said her mother's name in front of the second in command. "Oops, sorry. I meant, thats what Clover told me before I left."

"Don't be scared to speak freely," Campion told her in his calm, relaxing voice. "Just because I'm in command doesn't mean you can't say anything."

The gray doe nodded and hopped over to a patch of clover flowers. "Lets take these back to Woundwort. I don't doubt he would like some, and they smell wonderful."

The brown buck got down next to her and started to bite off the stems of the clover to take back to the Chief rabbit. Once they had got enough, they hopped back with clover in their mouths.

When they got back, Campion took Mist over to where he had stood guard an hour earlier and hopped right in, with of course, Mist on his heels.

"Who's there?" Woundwort's voice filled the little tunnel of thorn vines.

Campion hopped over to stand in front of the burrow hole and dropped his clover, twitching his long ear for Mist to do the same. "These are for you, Woundwort, chief of Efrafa."

Mist heard Woundwort sniff the clovers; she couldn't see much, since it was dark there in the tunnel. "Hmm. Clover, I see. Thank you, Campion." but before he took the clover, he sniffed the air again and the young doe saw the piercing blue eye's of the old fighter chief. "I see you have brought Mist with you, the new doe."

"Yes, sir, I have."

"Well," Woundwart swallowed some of the clover. "I have been watching you two, and I think you," he pionted his left forepaw at Campion. "Want to take this young rabbit in as your mate, am I not right?"

Mist gulped. Her, be a mate? She only wanted to be friends with Campion, but her fears were proven right when Campion answered the old chief. "Yes, I have been thinking about taking her on as my mate. In fact, I have found out that she is old enough to be a doe for a buck. She is a year old."

Woundwort snorted in discust. "It doesn't matter to me how old she is, just that she is old enough. Well, since you are my best rabbit, I will let you take her on as your doe. You two will fit together nicely."

NO! This couldn't be happening, it just couldn't! Mist couldn't believe her ears, and before she knew it, she was laying on the dirt floor next to Campion, who whisped right above her and tried to help her up, but she was to weak to move and drifted into a dreamless sleep...

* * *

"Mist, Mist! Wake up, Mist!" Campion's voice woke Mist up and she opened her eyes to see the brown rabbit looking over her again, accept this time they were in her own burrow.

"Wha, what happened to me?" she asked wearlily.

Campion prodded the young gray doe to help her stand up. "You fainted, so we took you here, I mean, Ivy and I did."

Mist didn't want to know the details right now; she was so tired that she fell back down in weariness. "Please, leave so I can rest, please Campion..." she said just as she was drifting back into a dreamless sleep.


	4. Chapter 3

"They're lovely, aren't they, Campion?" Mist looked up at the buck rabbit, who was looking down at Mist's kits who were snuggled closely to their mother, who was laying on her side in a sunning spot on a soft moss nest. Mist had given birth to Campion's kits three sun rises ago, who's names were Snowflake, Willow and Champion. Snowflake and Willow were does while Champion, who was named after his father, was a buck, a dark brown one at that. Snowflake was a white and Willow was a bright gray, and it was sometimes hard to tell them apart, except for how they acted and the spots on Willow's ears. Snowflake was always active, trying to climb with blind eyes over her mother's back and onto the grass to escape from the cramped nest, while Willow was always quiet and didn't move around as much.

Campion looked at his mate. "Of couse, my love. They are always going to be beautiful, because they are your daughters and son, along with mine." the buck put his head up with her's and nuzled with her. The gray doe was starting to get use to this new life, though she always wondered what her mother and her uncle were doing, if they were still searching for their lost daughter, or if they had given up and thought it was hopeless. Nevertheless, she knew that she had to escape, and Campion was her ticket to doing so.

Mist had made a plan on how to escape, with her kits of course. She had already made friends with some of the other does who also agreed with the plan. Those friends were Bucenene, Shorna, and Clisp, and they had kit of their own, that were old enough to travel far distances. The three new friends, along with her, had planned on using Campion to get special rights on going out on their own patrols, and once they could, they would escape using the bridge under the iron road. They would take the kits with them, sneak them there the night before, then take them away the next night.

Mist looked down at her kits, then back up at Campion. "My love, can you please watch the kits for me? I need to go get something to eat. I'm very hungry."

Campion shook his head. "No. I won't allow you to do that. I shall get it for you, since your in such a condition. I shall be back."

Mist sighed, but didn't replie, letting the buck hop away to look for something good for her to eat. She had wanted to go say hi to Clisp and the others, who were not far from a patch of clover, and talk with them about the plans. But Campion was very protective of his mate, and he didn't want her to leave her nest. But to her releif, she didn't have to leave her nest to say hi to her friends. The three does hopped over to the young mother and nuzzled with her, once from each of them.

Clisp was the first, so she got to talk first. "I see your kits are growing up fine there. Their legs look strong enough to travel from here to Watership Down already. When to we leave?"

Mist narrowed her eyes a bit. "I don't know yet. I think once they are able to hop around and travel a distance, we should be fine. I think maybe when they are allowed to hop with me on private patrols we can. I will ask Campion if I can start them after the kits are able to eat greens."

"Thats in such a long time!" Shorna said.

Mist growled. "Shush! Campion is coming!"

The brown rabbit hopped up to the group with fresh clover in his mouth. He dropped it for Mint to eat. "Here you are. Fresh clover. I better go report to Woundwart, then go on my first patrol of the day." he hopped off and disapeard into Woundward's den.

Bucenene looked back at Mist. "So, do you really think he will let you?"

Mist nodded. "He's my only hope."

* * *

Back at Watership Down...

Clover hopped along the scent line of her daughters. Mist and Holly had been missing for a moon already, but Clover still wanted to find them. She and her patrol had scented them on the outskirts of Watership Down, close to the begining of Elefrya territory. Most of the rabbits in the Ousla had been tracking them down the hill, but had seemed to never find the two young kits.

The white doe kept following the trail until she got to Elefrya territory. Before she could give up and turn back, a peice of gray fur caught her eye. It was lying on a small bush just two feet after the border. Clover hopped over to it and sniffed it. It was Mist's fur! Then she saw another peice of fur, a black peice. _They must have come this way, but, why would they go into enemy warren territory? _She thought carefully to herself. All that was left of her kits might have just been their fur, but then another scent, a strong scent, came to her twitching nose. Elefrya patrols had crossed the border.

Then a terrifiying explanation came to the white doe's mind. What if her kits had been taken by one of the patrols back to their warren? But Clover just hopped along the scent some more, her nose twitching all the way. When she saw some more fur, black fur, she thumped as hard as she could on the ground so the other rabbits on her patrol would hear. But no sound came. Just a soft thump sound, not loud enough to be a real thump.

Clover looked below her to see that she wasn't standing on hard dirt. Something was below her. The rabbit quickly got to work digging it up. Aftger a few heartbeats or so, the white doe stepped back in horror. It was Holly.


	5. Chapter 4

"Where are you taking us, mum?" Snowflake asked her mother as Mist hopped along the road, followed by Shorna and Clisp who each had a kit in their mouths. Mist was determained that tonight would be the night that she would take her daughters to the iron road.

Mist put her daughter on the ground before speaking. "I'm taking you to our new home."

Snowflake looked up at her mother. "But why?" she asked, her eyes lowering with fear.

"Because our old home is worse than the iron road," Mist said in a harsh voice, then picked up her daughter and hopped on until they got to the arch under the iron road.

She hopped over to a bush and put her daughter in a hidden spot before letting Shorna and Clisp put Willow and Champion down next to the smallest of the three. Mist looked around as they put down the two to make sure no other rabbits were near. She then nodded to Shorna and Clisp who hopped along the road which led back to the Warren. She turned back to her kits and hushed them as they squealed for their mother.

"Mama, why are you leaving us here? Aren't you going to come to the new home to us?" Willow sqeaked out of her tiny little mouth. Her ears fliped forward as she got on her hind paws and tried to lift herself up to her mother.

Mist thumped her foot with a loud thud which made both the little does shuder next to the boulder which held up the iron road. Champion only let his ears fly back and he let out a loud thump like she had. He always wanted to do what his mother did, and like his father did. He was already a co-worker next to his father when it came to gathering lettuce for Woundwart. Mist put her head low to her son and nudged him closer to his sisters before leeting the bush cover them and she hopped onto the road, looking back to see three very innocent pars of eyes look straight at me. I just ignore them and hop back to Elefra.

* * *

"Look at this, Blackberry," Clover nodded to a chewed clover very close to the border between Elefra and Watership Down.

Blackberry hopped over to the white doe and looked at the clover flower. "It smelled lots like Elefra." Then he looked back at where Pipkin and Lily were waiting for more commands. "You two, have you checked the Iron Road yet?"

Lily shook her silver head. "No, we haven't yet. Would you like us to check now?"

"No," Clover flicked her left ear backwards. "I think I should. I might see Mist there, I hope. After what those dirty, no good rotten rabbits did to my daughters, I want to make sure they will pay for it-"

"Calm down, Clover." Fiver came over to the group from where he had been investigating a pile of posionous leaves on the border. "You don't need to get roused up about this afair. I can take you down there if you wish."

Clover sighed. "Alright. Lets go then."

The two hop to the iron gate which takes about fifteen minutes, give or take the few stops when Fiver almost passed out. When they got there, Clover went straight to work on figuring out if her daughter had been there or not. She hopped over to a bush just next to the border and looks inside it incase her daughter is in it when she sees three pairs of little brown eyes inside it. She looks inside to see if her daugher is one them to find three healthy looking kits, one of which looks like her, another like Mist, and the last like Campion, the evil sidekick of Woundwart.

"Fiver, you may want to look at this," She said, her voice almost a whisper.

Fiver came over and looked down at the bush and saw the little creatures. He picked one up in his jaws and set it on the road, the little thing squirming awake. The little brown buck looked straight into the eyes of Clover and cocked his head a little.

"You look like mother," he sqeaked.

Clover and Fiver looked at each other, then back at the little kit. Clover nudged him and sniffed. The little creature sqealed as if to be tickled, then let out a huge yawn and laid down on the hard ground.

"Little one, who is your mother?" She asked the tiny kit, who looked back up at her and blinked it's huge, inocent brown eyes.

He let out another big yawn and answered in a tiny voice. "My mother left us last night after the others were asleep. Clasp and Shorna with with us, carrying me and Willow. Snowflake was with mother. Father had been on watch, and mother had said that she was taking us on a little walk because Snowflake was coughing."

"No, what's your mother's _name_?" Clover pushed on.

"Oh, mother's name is Mist, and father's is Campion."

Clover's eyes widened. These were her daughter's kits.

* * *

Mist hopped along the road, the dusky sun on her back and Campion behind her. The two were on a walk, and Mist was going to tell Campion what she should have for quite a while. The night before when Mist had come back she had told a lie about going for a midnight stroll and finding her kits gone as she passed the kit's nest. Both mother and father had grieved for the kits, Mist mainly because she knew what she had to tell her mate.

The two rabbits passed the green fields as they hopped along the dirt and rock path. The pale sun was touching the tips of the vines of the grape plants and the just-ripe grapes dripping wet from the rain in the afternoon. The clouds in the sky tried covering the sun, but the Great Lord of the sun pushed them away with his rays of heat.

Campion was soon hopping beside Mist, who had her head low with grief. "Mist, are you alright?" He asked his mate.

Mist halted and looked up at him. "Campion, there's something I need to tell you. It's, it's about my past..."

Campion nodded and let her go on. "Well, ever since the kits were born, I've been planning, well," she hesitated before going on. "I've been planning an escape."

"What?" Campion took a step away from Mist. "So, was your love for me a _lie_?" He almost sqeaked out the words.

Mist shook her head and hopped towards him. "No, no. Thats not what I mean. I mean, well, I wanted to get back to my _real_ home. Don't you notice how our kit's don't have your blue eyes? They don't belong here, and neither do I. Campion, come with me. The kits are waiting for us beneath the Iron Gate. I took them out the night I went on a stroll with Shorna and Clisp. We all took the kits and put them in a bush beneath the Iron Gate. Please, Campion. I will be lost without you in my life."

Campion looked down at the rocky ground. His ears flicked somewhat, but soon he lifted his head and nodded. "I will come with you. If this means this much to you, I will come. My love for you is still strong, no matter what."

The two nodded together and hopped along the rock-dirt road all the way to the Iron Road. By the time they had gotten there, the Great Moon Lord had taken over the sky. Mist hopped over to the bush and looked inside, gasping to see what was inside. Nothing.


End file.
